Folio Archives 71: A History of the Crusades by Steven Runciman 1994

A History of the Crusades by Steven Runciman 1994 (3 volumes)

I found this to be a fascinating and easy to read history of the Crusades to the Holy Land, between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, with many very interesting first hand accounts included.

Runciman has the ability to make you feel that he is describing the characters as seen by a contemporary rather than at a distance of 800 years. The reasoning behind the crusades, their often chaotic organisation, what happened to individuals who took part in them, and the ultimate result of these endeavours are all covered.

The crusades started with religious fervour and romantic ideals, but often ended in penury and death, although others thrived in the Kingdoms created along the coast of modern Israel and Lebanon. Unfortunately, many crusaders never made it to the desired city of Jerusalem, dropping out or dying along the way. Greed, as well as piety, played equal parts in the crusades, with the sacking of Constantinople being one of the low points.

The three volumes are beautifully bound in brown vegetable parchment blocked on cover and spine with a design in blue and gilt. The endpapers are printed in a design based on the “Cloth of Gold” pattern of the period. The titled slipcase (25x16.8x11.2cm.) is also patterned in the same way as the endpapers.

Volume One is the First Crusade (312 pages), Volume Two is the Kingdom of Jerusalem (416 pages) and Volume Three the Kingdom of Acre (448 pages). Each volume is indexed and has a bibliography. A long fold out covering the genealogy of the major participants is at the back of Volume Three. Maps are included in each volume where appropriate and there are nine colour plates in each volume.





Slipcase cover












Endpapers – same in all volumes.


VOLUME ONE



























VOLUME TWO























VOLUME THREE



















Geneaological Trees




Promotional brochure








An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.

A very nice set and a worthy addition to the series. I seem to recall I got mine super-cheap on eBay and I think anyone inspired by this post should have little difficulty in finding a similar bargain.

I prefer the newer binding, but either way it's worth the shelf space and the read

>3 gmacaree:
The 2004 Eyewitness History of the Crusades is a completely different book, that gives a different perspective to the history.
It is not a reprint of Runciman's work, but another very nice FS publication.

>3 gmacaree: The original binding looks nicer than my 2010 edition (15th printing) but the price was right (free bonus book in 2011).

Ref: Folio 60 item 782
The 2001 9th printing had a redesigned binding in full blue vegetable parchment.
Images borrowed from ebay:

>6 bookfair_e:
Thank you for this information. I was not aware that it had been reprinted in a new binding.
Complete List of FS Books has been updated to reflect this information.
It must have been quite a popular title if it had at least eleven printings.

>7 wcarter: It must have been quite a popular title if it had at least eleven printings.

IIRC it was one of the popular giveaways, when Folio did such things to attract new or renewing members.

Thank you for sharing this. I have a strong reverence for Runciman's work in general, and this work in particular, though my historical views have developed since I first came across it. I suspect I'll have to find a copy of this one.

Thank you for this post convinced me to make a purchase and I’m so glad I did as I think it’s a fascinating read with a most diligently collected source of knowledge on the crusades.

>8 folio_books:. Yes. I got mine, in the same binding as shown here, as a renewal offer in the mid-90’s. (Which I was very happy to receive.)